New Nokia, Motorola phones powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon

Nokia and Motorola unveiled their latest new smartphones on Wednesday, with each of the models powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors.

Nokia showed off two new Lumia devices that run on Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 operating system -- the latest update to the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant's software for mobile phones.

San Diego's Qualcomm has had a long-running relationship with Microsoft, designing its processors to run well with the Windows mobile phone operating system. It supplied chips for all previous models of Windows phones, including models from Nokia.

Nokia, meanwhile, has been struggling to gain traction in the smartphone market, particularly in the U.S. where it faces tough competition from the Apple’s iPhone and many other devices running on Google’s Android operating system.

Nokia introduced its first two Windows Phone 8 smartphones – the Lumia 820 and Lumia 920. Qualcomm’s 1.5 Gigahertz dual core Snapdragon S4 chip is the processor in the handsets.

“Nokia's decision to unveil its second generation Lumia devices in the U.S. is extremely significant for the Finnish handset manufacturer, which has always struggled to make an impact in the country, even before the advent of Apple’s iPhone,” said Tony Cripps, principal analyst at Ovum, an industry research firm based in the U.K. “But this is also a notable launch for Microsoft, which needs to pull out all the stops to guarantee greater awareness and demand for Windows Phone 8 devices, among consumers, business users and carriers.”

Despite the new phone line up, Nokia’s shares slid Wednesday. It provided few details about when the phones would be available, what they’ll cost or which wireless carriers will stock the devices, which may have disappointed investors. Nokia’s shares dropped 45 cents to $2.38 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Motorola Mobility -- now owned by Google -- also unveiled three new Droid Razr 4G Android smartphones on Wednesday for Verizon’s LTE network -- including one starting at $99 and available next week. Each new phone has a dual core, 1.5 Gigahertz processor. A Motorola spokeswoman confirmed that Snapdragon chips power the devices but didn't provide more details. A Qualcomm spokeswoman declined to comment.

Both Motorola and Nokia announced the devices ahead of Apple, which is holding an event next week where it’s expected to introduce the iPhone 5. Apple typically uses its own processors in its devices.

There are more than 420 devices that use the Snapdragon processor and there are an additional 400 designs in development, including more than 30 tablets, a Qualcomm spokewoman said.

Last week, Qualcomm said its Snapdragon S4 processors are powering Samsung’s new ATIV tablets and smartphones running Windows RT and Windows Phone 8. In addition, Snapdragon S4 chips run Dell’s new XPS10 tablet, which also was unveiled last week.